


Like Cherry Cola

by dirty_diana



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-25
Updated: 2006-12-25
Packaged: 2019-06-25 20:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15648159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirty_diana/pseuds/dirty_diana
Summary: Katie's got a crush, and almost everybody knows it.





	Like Cherry Cola

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pirateygoodness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirateygoodness/gifts).



> I sorta smushed two prompts together. "Can I touch your hair?" And the reason there's no longer an open bar at the Christmas party. Beta'd by skripka, much love.
> 
> Note from diana, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Pretty Lights](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Pretty_lights), which closed for financial reasons. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Pretty Lights collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/prettylights/profile).

Shonda still calls Patrick "McDreamy". Mostly when she's saying hello, passing him in the hallways of the studio, on her way to somewhere else. Shonda always walks very, very fast.   
  
A couple of the directors still use the nickname too. "McDreamy, your mark is a little to the left."   
  
Katie only calls him "Patrick". She likes the way that he looks up and smiles when he hears it.   
  
~   
  
Katie still has her VHS copy of  _Can't Buy Me Love_. She watches it sometimes, curled up on her couch with her favourite fuzzy blanket. Only when she's exhausted, or sick, too sleepy to keep her eyes open but too feverish to fall asleep. She's always sure not to let Josh catch her. He'd only tease her about the fact that she knows all the dialogue.   
  
~   
  
She has a dream that she and TR go shopping at the Beverly Center, and in Sephora, between the rows of lipsticks - Katie always reaches for the dark shades, her eye drawn to shameless cherry reds - TR tells her that Patrick is leaving his wife.   
  
It's a stupid dream. Katie likes Patrick's wife, and Patrick's son. And she knows that she has a good fiance, one who makes up silly songs in the car to make her laugh.   
  
And if Patrick Dempsey ever did leave his wife, she's pretty sure that it wouldn't be over her.   
  
In real life, TR and Katie go shopping at Bergdorf Goodman. Katie tries on shoes, and in between the rows of flats, TR tells her that Sandra is having a party.   
  
They browse a little, and have lunch. She orders a Cobb salad and a side of fries, drowned in mayonnaise. She isn't eating to distract herself, though. That would be stupid.   
  
~   
  
TR holds a secret Santa. He posts a sign-up sheep on the wall inside make-up. Katie draws Patrick's name out of the hat, and she's pretty sure her hands shake.   
  
TR draws Ellen's name. The go to Bloomingdales, and TR makes her try out handbags.   
  
"Isn't there supposed to be some kind of suggested spending amount on these things?" she asks. "Like, twenty-five dollars?"   
  
TR squints at her, and then jiggles the zipper on a pebble-wash Kooba purse. "What kind of cheap-ass secret Santa is that?"   
  
Katie revises her shopping list.   
  
~   
  
"Can I touch your hair?"   
  
Waiting for the next setup, head on her knees, Katie didn't realise that she had fallen asleep. She wakes up to find Kate kneeling beside her, tugging on the strands that fall forward on her shoulder.   
  
"I'm thinking of going blonde. Over the holidays. What do you think?"   
  
"I think you'd look gorgeous," Katie says, and means it. She's pretty sure that she was having a fantastic dream. But she can't quite remember it.   
  
~   
  
Josh catches her in her pastel pink pajamas on the couch, well past nine. "I thought you were going out?"   
  
Katie shrugs. Sandra's parties usually consist of getting shit-faced, and then getting her ass kicked at Trivial Pursuit, and she's not in the mood for either. Instead, she's halfway through a Sophie Kinsella novel.   
  
She might be avoiding Patrick too, though she's not sure why.   
  
TR texts her regularly from the party, with updates on the booze supply and who's cheating at the games. (Ellen, mostly. TR suspects that Sandra is helping her, but can't prove it.) The messages get more unintelligible as the evening wears on. Close to midnight, TR sends her a random string of numbers, punctuated by exclamation marks.   
  
Katie smiles, and puts down her book. Prince Charming always declares his love in the end, anyway.   
  
~   
  
"Shit. Sorry."   
  
She crashes into Patrick in the 24-hour Coffee Bean, and almost spills chai on her shirt.   
  
Patrick pulls away without a drop on him, and then touches her arm to make sure she's okay. "You're not at the party?" he asks her, and she shrugs.   
  
"You?"   
  
Patrick shakes his head. "We thought we'd stay in tonight. But," he gestures at the paper bag, "We had a late-night brownie craving."   
  
Katie grins, and ignores the cup that is burning her fingers. "Twins," she says.   
  
Patrick smiles back. "Twins," he agrees.   
  
Patrick is a good husband.   
  
~   
  
"Katie's got a crush on you, you know."   
  
At the cast and crew Christmas party, Kate gets drunk, and spends a lot of time tripping in her 3-inch platform heels. Patrick catches her gently, and puts her down on the nearest chair. He smiles softly, at Kate and then at Katie, and seems not to notice that Katie is furiously blushing.   
  
"Does she, now?"   
  
"Yup." Kate waves her arms, and some of her appletini spills over the side of the glass. "Huge, huge crush."   
  
"That's nice," Patrick says. He takes the glass from Kate's hand, and sets it carefully on the floor. "That's really nice."   
  
"Huge," Kate says again. Justin gave her a massive box of chocolates in the gift exchange, topped by a Santa hat, and Kate wears the hat crookedly on her head.   
  
Patrick laughs.   
  
~   
  
TR swears that everyone has an embarrassing on-set crush, but he won't say who his is. Katie's got her theories, though, and anyway Kate apologises. And shares her chocolates - they eat them in one sitting, sitting cross-legged on TR's living room floor. TR makes jet-black coffee, and Kate clings to it gratefully.   
  
"At least Patrick liked his present," Katie says.   
  
"What did you get him?" TR stirs sugar into his coffee, heaping teaspoonfuls.   
  
"Something for the babies." Katie shrugs, and kicks Kate with her bare feet. "Who's your on-set crush?"   
  
Kate grins evilly. "Not telling."   
  
"No fair."   
  
"Life's not fair, honey," Kate drawls, and TR stuffs red and green jellybeans down both their shirts.


End file.
